Yet, the man who has been referred to as the left-footed David Beckham, couldn't get his pass to Hall. Without having to jump, Ashe deflected the pass to the open arms of Tyler Deric for the interception. Fortunately for the Dynamo, they were playing a flag football game. As a quarterback, Davis makes a wonderful soccer player.

With the competition about to pick up dramatically in the next two weeks, coach Dominic Kinnear let his players finish up the week off with a relaxing practice Friday.

"The week started off pretty intense," Brian Ching said. "There was pretty good energy at practice. It was pretty competitive in the games that we've had. It was pretty light today. It was fun."

Ching believes it was a way to avoid being too serious.

"It put smiles on the guys' faces," Ching said. "It's tough sometimes when you're in a playoff race. Sometimes you take things a little too serious and get a little too uptight. I think today was good for the guys."

Stressful six weeks

It would be an understatement to say the tension has been high around the Dynamo over the past six weeks. Nobody has been immune to the occasional nasty stare or curse word between players. In some practices the testy exchanges have been between coaches and players.

"Besides Cam (Weaver) everybody's healthy," Kinnear said. "I wanted to head into the weekend and give the guys a break, get them away from each other and from the game to relax.

"Next week is going to be pressure heading up to the game and during the game. As long as everyone's healthy heading into Monday's training session, we're very happy."

That's not to say the guys weren't getting on each other during the football game, especially after multiple interceptions thrown by Davis, Bobby Boswell and Deric.

Such is usually the case when you get highly competitive men driven to push each other to success. With a vocabulary that would make drill sergeants blush, Kinnear has molded the Dynamo into one of the feistiest groups in MLS.

Eager for postseason

The Dynamo might not have always been the most talented, but they were always among the grittiest teams, and that includes the club's first non-playoff season last year.

The two-time MLS Cup champions won the title in their first two seasons and reached the playoffs in their first four seasons.

They're eager to return to the postseason. A victory at the expansion Portland Timbers on Friday might be enough to seal the playoff berth, but the Oct. 23 match at home against the Los Angeles Galaxy could be the clincher.

The Dynamo control their destiny with two games to go.

"It's a great time for a little break for us," Hall said. "We get to kind of recharge the batteries right before the final push. We have two games left, and if we get six points we're in."